Dating Deep Work
An ongoing affair with growing productivity.
I know, I can’t just start posting stories again after almost one year without any explanation. Especially when the story is about increased productivity. However, 2022 has been the most overwhelming year of my life. My girlfriend for the last 10 years decided to stop dating me. We got married. We moved 9000 km west of my home to England. The list goes on. But today is not about that, I will post all about it in the yearly recap. This story is about my new life partner. No, not my wife. And no, I am not cheating on her. This is about my new life companion who pushed me miles ahead of who I was. deep work.
I was this guy who always kept the workload at a manageable sweet spot. Someone who would rather compromise on the quality than be overwhelmed with work. I was always happy with mediocre results with little to no stress. This worked well over the years as it enabled me to do things I love and say yes to new challenges. However, with time I realized that growing up I hated to see myself being cosy. It started demanding more. My deep meaningful relationship with comfort in life started to shatter and I started to fall in love with high performance. Suddenly I was not willing to settle for anything less than my best. I think it is one of those things that happens as you grow up. You see responsibilities adding up on your plate, you feel the pressure from society, and you know you can do better. This is when I started to look out for growth opportunities.
Finding growth opportunities was way easier than I expected. You just have to ask for them and say yes when it finds you. I will write about that on another day. However, what is hard is what comes after you say yes to many such growth plans. After saying yes and committing myself to work on them, there comes the challenge of execution. Remember, I broke up with mediocracy. Compromising on quality was not an option. This is when I started to follow the concept of deep work.
The idea of focusing on one task at hand deeply, instead of trying to multitask at a shallow level was not novel to me. I knew multitasking is not something that we as humans are equipped to perform at effective levels. However, I started to follow deep work as a concept only after I came across Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work”. I believe even the word “Deep Work” became a thing after his book.
I am not trying to dissect the book in this. You can read the book for that. What I want to share is what I incorporated into my life through that book and how it is working out for me so far. Just like after reading any book, you don’t just adopt everything in it. You only take what hits you the most. Therefore this is my twist on it. I’m sure if Cal reads this, he might get so disappointed in me. But it is what it is.
What is deep work and understanding the difference.
Firstly, I wanted to distinguish between what is deep work and what is not. Cal goes into very minute details on this and tries to explain the contrast through examples. After going through all of that, my understanding of deep work is quite simple. Deep work is when you focus on something so hard, with no distractions for prolonged periods, and achieve remarkable results through connections you made during the task that seems way out of reach when you look at it with a shallow mind.
My litmus test to see if I reached deep levels, is to look at the work when I am in a shallow mindset. If I am amazed by my work and how I made those connections, and about the quality of my work, then I have to reach deep levels while working on that. Maybe I am trying to oversimplify it. However, looking at my work this way helped me to distinguish the difference, and grow my commitment to deep work.
Accepting boredom in life
This has been the biggest eye-opener in my life through this book. Reaching deeper levels of work was not easy. It is still not. Apparently, the willingness itself is not enough to reach deeper levels. Your brain needs to be ready to withhold distractions and focus on the task at hand. My brain was far from being ready to let me do that. With the use of technology and having so much of highly engaging activities around you to avoid boredom, my mind is addicted to those shallow distractions over deeper levels of concentration. Livening on dopamine highs all the time through the use of social media, and default activities such as watching movies and youtube videos, boredom is something I kept avoiding at all costs.
This is just like trying to lose weight by working out for someone who is addicted to sweets. The willingness alone will not cut it. Your brain is chemically addicted to sweets and it takes more discipline and proven techniques to get rid of that addiction. Similarly, when your brain is addicted to highly stimulating activities to avoid boredom, you need discipline and a framework to work on to get better.
For me, the most effective techniques were the simplest ones. Acknowledging the fact that boredom in life is good, treating boredom as an opportunity to recharge can flip the way you behave significantly. My approach was to keep this idea as the northern star and adopt ways and tools to achieve boredom in my life more frequently. Eventually, I started looking out the window as I travel than reading a book or watching a video. Began to resist the urge to take the phone out the moment boredom hits at any time such as when in a queue, or when waiting for someone. Instead, I started anchoring myself to boring activities such as looking at the clock and counting the number of straws on the tabletop in the bar. These boring tasks seem cynical and easy to do. But trust me, resisting the urge to have a quick glance at your phone can be very daunting at times.
*reading books is not a bad habit at all. I just avoided it sometimes to accommodate my requirement to achieve boredom.
The relationship with my phone
I am one of those people who always wonder how people survive the pre-mobile device era. I am attached to my mobile phone to a level where it feels like an extension of my body. If you read the article from the top, you should know by now that this is not helpful. Especially the use of algorithmically modified social media tools that keeps us in a constant high with information. I needed a way out of this. However, I did not want to disconnect alltogether and force myself to the other extreme. I am sure you would want the same. A way to get better without forcing yourself to do impossible things.
What I did on this is to take small yet highly committed steps.
1. Switch off pop-up notifications on all social media. — This allowed me to pick the time to read the messages and check notifications instead of getting distracted all the time by notifications. “But what if something really important happens at that time?” What was the last time that someone texted you in an emergency instead of calling? Do not compromise your sanity for that 0.01% chance of missing out on something. If you are still insecure, change your chat status asking the sender to call you if it’s an emergency.
2. Having committed to digital detox times — I set myself time gaps of my choice for not using digital devices. This could be days, hours, or even minutes. The important aspect is not the number of hours you do this. It is the commitment to resist the urge to use social media. The time frames will eventually increase with practice. Yes, this sounds like trying to get rid of drug addiction. And yes, this is exactly an addition that we are trying to resist and yes again, you will face some withdrawal symptoms.
Tracking deep work
One final step I have adopted so far is to track the number of hours I spend on deep work. I use an app called Toggle for this. This app and many other tips were initially shared with me by my friend/mentor/ex-work buddy Buddhinath. You can check out his content here.
The reason for you to track your time is twofold. Firstly, when you start tracking time, not doing deep work becomes a choice you have to make. Because you have to make the conscious choice of not clocking in. It will not be the default anymore. Secondly, this gives you a sense of your deep work productivity at the end of the day. Some will track this over time to understand any trends. I just look (as instructed by cal in one of his podcasts) at it each day to understand daily achievements and let my mind analyse the rest.
In conclusion, my life reached new levels of productivity and quality of work by integrating deep work. While there is a lot to explore in this, whatever I achieved kept me making me a better version of myself. I believe this new relationship of mine is going really well and I would continue to go on dates with deep work. What I share is my side of the story, If you ever wish to go down the same path or someone who already does, please feel free to share your ideas and tips below, so we can grow together.
